DCHP-3

prog

DCHP-2 (Oct 2016)

Spelling variants:
proggin's

1n. & adj. — often Food, Newfoundland

food or supplies.

Type: 2. Preservation — The term prog is another word for 'food' (see the 1853 and 1891 quotations), especially provisions that are prepared 'to be consumed out of doors or away from home' (see EDD, s.v. "prog" (11)). Prog can also be extended to describe winter supplies (see DNE, s.v. "prog" (n)), such as matches or knives (see the 1993 quotation). Prog is likely a preservation from British English, having the meaning of 'food, [especially] provisions for a journey or excursion' as early as the 17th century (see OED-3, s.v. "prog" (n2)(2a)). This derivation coincides with Newfoundland's settlement history, as the province was settled to a considerable degree by people from the southwest counties of England in the 18th and 19th century (Clarke 2010b: 7). Note that prog is also marked as characteristic of Irish English (see OED-3, s.v. "prog" (n2)(2a)), offering another possible source for its existence in Newfoundland English when considering the province's other primary immigration source, southeastern Ireland (see Clarke 2010b: 7).
The noun prog, as a synonym for 'food' (see the 1995 quotation), is said to derive from the verb prog, which dates back to the 16th century and means 'to forage' or 'to search or hunt about [especially] for food' (see OED-3, s.v. "prog" (v)). Accordingly, W-3 defines prog as 'food, [especially] when obtained by foraging, filching, or as a handout' (see W-3, s.v. "prog"(4)).
See also COD-2, s.v. "prog", which is marked "Cdn (Nfld)" and DNE, s.v. "prog" (n).
This term can also be used attributively, such as prog-bag (see the 1849 quotation) or prog-box (see the 1986 quotation).

Quotations

1849
Having myself travelled twenty-five and thirty miles a day on foot, and in winter over snow and ice, with a bucking gun three or four pounds heavier than the Ordnance musket, and a prog-bag on my shoulder, I still believe that the fifteen miles a day towards the Pole might be accomplished, and consequently that several hundred miles could be safely explored in one summer.
1853
They commonly select some pretty island in the bay, or shady retired spot on the main land, for the general rendezvous, where they light a fire, boil their kettles, and cook the vegetables to eat with their cold prog, which usually consists of hams, fowls, meat pies, cold joints of meat, and abundance of tarts and cakes, while the luxury of ice is conveyed in a blanket at the bottom of one of the boats.
1869
MCCREA 237 Our little baskets of prog—hard-boiled eggs, cold tongue, fowl, and sandwiches, with a screw of salt—lay ready open.
1891
Evening Telegram 28 Sep. 1891, p. 6 The hunters began to 'make our prog' (i.e. putting their pork, flour and tea, etc into loads).
1933
MERRICK 103 A progbag is to a trapper what a dittybox is to a sailor. In it he carries a few matches, a few candles and cartridges, a spare pair of sox, his pencil, an awl and crooked-knife, a snowshoe needle, sewing materials, deerskin and sealskin patches and other cherished encumbrances.
1978
We left you see with Billy Knee / Bound Home with colours flying, / But were forced to stay at Trinity Bay / Two weeks or more there lying. / Though short of grog still lots of prog / To bring us home quite hearty / Each Trinity Dove fell wild in love / With Walsh and Luke McCarthy.
1986
FELTHAM 174 In some parts of Newfoundland [the lunch box] was called a 'prog box,' but to my knowledge this term was never used in Bonavista North.
1990
C 71-38 At supper time she would call, 'Come in to your proggins.'
1995
English as you've never heard it before will increase your vocabulary to the breaking point. Plaumaush means soft talk or flattery and prog is food. Whitehorses on the bay describes waves breaking into foam on a stormy day, and long may your big jib draw is a good wish for the future.
2003
"Well, ye see, boys," said the venerable veteran of a hundred gales, "'twas getting well ahead in the year, prog was gettin' mighty slack, and fittin' out for a fishery wasn't thought of. [...] As I was saying, prog was running short, and no one would dream of fitting out a boat to go to St. John's, so one evening we called a meeting in a fish store to see what was to be done.
2v. — Newfoundland, rare

to provide food or housing to someone.

Type: 3. Semantic Change — The transitive verb prog is used to describe the action of providing food or accommodation (see DNE, s.v. "prog" (v)). It likely derives from the noun prog (see meaning 1), which makes this use a semantic change, transitioning from simply the noun 'food' to the act of both feeding and housing (see the 1979 quotation). A lack of written attestations suggests that this term is either rare or limited to the oral domain. Note that this meaning differs from COD-2's definition of prog, which is defined as 'to forage for food' and is marked as "obsolete" (see COD-2, s.v. "prog" (v)).
See also DNE, s.v. "prog" (v).

Quotations

1979
People from upalong, unaware that many of our forefathers came from England's West country, find some of our words and pronunciations a bit strange. Not knowing that f is pronounced as v and s as z, they are amazed to hear "The birds virked the zeeds out of the ground wi' thur veet'. They don't believe there's a verb 'to firk' or a verb 'to prog', as used by the Placentia Bay man who met the new teacher off the steamer some years ago and said, "Come with me; I'm going to prog you this week and somebody else will do it next week and so on".
1990
P 189-66 Prog the clergy'—a common phrase meaning that the clergyman would stay for a week in each parishioner's house while waiting for his residence to be built.

References

  • COD-2
  • DNE
  • EDD
  • OED-3
  • W-3
  • Clarke (2010b)